


I am you, You are me

by SymKirarah_Hime



Series: 毒性空中 ( Toxic Air ) [1]
Category: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Genre: Aftermath, F/F, F/M, Fourth Shinobi War, M/M, Multi, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Post-Naruto Time Skip | Naruto Shippuden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-19 11:24:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5965539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymKirarah_Hime/pseuds/SymKirarah_Hime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens after the world as you know it has ended?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The smell of carrion wafted across the rubble and wreckage of the battle field. Bodies of the Allied Shinobi Forces were strewn around the rocks and splintered trunks of the Tree of Life, the massive looming husk of the Gedo statue shading the harsh and smoky sunlight from warming up the carcasses of friends and comrades. A pair of blue and black eyes surveyed the crater-like battle field, watching as medical ninja flitted from body to body, searching for survivors, the longer they spent checking, the more the casualties increased. The pair watched as the medical-nin marked the dead with red ribbons around their ankles, and the injured with green; the retrieval squads rushing to gather those marked with green to move them to the hastily set up medical pavilion on the other side of the ridge. The blue eyed blond turned to his companion and studied the brunet next to him.

The dark haired youth had smudges of darkness present under his now normal eyes, the Sharingan and Rinengan having disappeared after the battle with Madara had come to its conclusion; a good amount of the boys’ chakra having been spent on the final battle. His thin mouth turned down at the corners as his gaze was drawn to the sound of a mournful wail in the southernmost reach of the crater. Jaw clenched, his knuckles tightened their grip on the hilt of his kusanagi. The blond next to him followed his look, wiped at the dirt and dried blood clinging to the yellow hairs in his eyes, and turned with a shudder away from the grisly sight. A young ninja was clinging to the upper half of his squad-mate, his screams and sobs bouncing around the unnatural landscape that was the by-product of the passing war. From where the young men stood, they couldn’t see the bloody mess of the hidden sand kunoichi’s crushed lower half. she was unfortunate enough to have been caught beneath debris from Madara’s Chibaku Tensei after the two young men had managed to break up the lager satellite planets.

“Sasuke... “  the blondes’ voice came out in a rough whisper, as he stepped away from the ledge of the battlefield.

His comrade tore his gaze from the gore and destruction before them as though being released from a genjutsu, and turned his attention to the man who had uttered his name. The normally vibrant hue in the other shinobi’s blue gaze had faded to a stormy grey, the emotional stress of the carnage they had created was clearly visible in the boys face and posture.

“We defeated the enemy, you knew that there would be casualties, Naruto.” As Sasuke let the words tumble from his lips, he paused. He didn’t know what else to say. The turmoil that was clearly seen on Naruto’s face was also present in his gut, his words were more directed to himself than his former squad-mate.

“How... how could you say that? I know you’ve been away doing your own thing, out for vengeance, yada-yada, but...” Naruto was shaking at this point, and Sasuke lowered his gaze from the other shinobi’s eyes.

“but these are PEOPLE Sasuke, they DIED protecting ME, ya know? And all their deaths... they were my fault. I’d hoped that... maybe they’d come back, like they did in Konoha when I fought Nagato, when the village was destroyed, again. We grew up with some of these people, Sasuke, some of them were just KIDS, younger than us. Do they not matter in the slightest to you? Do their lives have no worth?” the dark haired man turned his face back towards the battlefield, his eyes drifting towards a group of seven ninja not far from where the two boys stood, the familiar shapes of the figures causing old childhood memories to resurface.

He cared for them.

Even when he left almost four years ago, he left because he cared. He’d tried to pretend he didn’t, and for a while he almost believed himself. The grief of losing his family, his brother, not only once but three times was the final shove he needed to return to his friends and comrades, and no matter the death and horrors he had witnessed (and also committed), Sasuke Uchiha cared for these shinobi. And to hear the person he at one point considered his closest friend and possibly even a brother accuse him of _not_ caring, well, that was like a slap in the face he did not need.

“Naruto, they knew what they were doing, they would have fled ages ago had they not. We all knew what we were signing up for, I-“ Sasuke trailed off as he mulled the words over inside his head. He didn’t want to create more strife with his old friend than he already had, but the hard headed and stubborn child he remembered had grown into an even more so stubborn man, and so the other boy began to stomp towards the setting sun, and their teammates.

He reached out with his left hand to grab the blond shinobi in front of him by the arm, only to be met with a crack of energy shooting up his arm and down the left side of his body. Naruto stumbled to the side slightly as the shock resonated through his bones and zinged down his right side. A faint glow came from the markings on each of the young men’s respective dominant hands. They both froze as the light began to pulsate, growing brighter and dimmer with each heartbeat. At first they didn’t seem to notice the tingling that began at their fingertips and made its way through their limbs, they were to preoccupied with how the flashes of milky light began to synch up. The gently tingle built up to a searing burn, driving both men to their knees on the rocky outcropping of the battle field as the pain flourished across their chests, narrowing to a pin prick of searing agony centered over their hearts. The marks that Hagorama had placed on the youths after their deaths flared one last time as engery poured outward and exploded with a resounding boom as the two toppled over and were blow backward with the force of energy that shot from their palms.

 

Naruto went soaring through the air away from the dip of the crater, ears ringing and vision blurry. He came rolling to a stop with his side crashing into a boulder, an unpleasant crunching sound accompanying his landing. He rose from the ground gingerly, the fading ache in his chest being replaced with the searing pain of one or more broken ribs and a burning sensation spreading through his left shoulder, followed by an unsettling numbness. The blond winced at the feeling in his right shoulder, and he reached with this left hand to assess how badly he was wounded. When his fingertips met solid fabric, no tearing, no trace of blood or injury, his head began to spin with the pain, and, closing his eyes and inhaling sharply,  he frantically patted around his back and upper arm. Finding no trace of the damage he sat back sharply on his heels, releasing a shuttered gasp as realization dawned on him.

_Sasuke._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> someone is alive, but its not who you'd think
> 
> edited: no one said anything about me calling Neji 'Neju'. 
> 
> that's what i get for editing my own fics at 2 in the morning 
> 
> Chapter 3 will be a lot longer and i'll post it around 11:50 pm pst on feb 26th

Sakura took a deep breath. She had been doing nothing but rushing around giving orders, tending to the critically wounded, and awaiting further instructions from Tsunade-sama via Katsuyu. One of the small blue and white slug fragments was also relaying directions to the squads flitting about the battle field tending to the injured, and retrieving the severely wounded ninja still being searched for in the rubble.

“Sakura-san, you must take a break before you collapse, your chakra must have a chance to replenish itself.” The gentle voice of the summoning animal breaking though the shouting din surrounding the medical pavilion, and drawing the pink haired kunoichi's attention away from the Hidden Cloud ninja’s cleaned and bandaged wound she had been fussing over. The green eyed woman paused and swayed almost imperceptibly before she turned to the next patient, sweeping her sweaty hair from her brow, wincing as her arm grazed over the still tender seal of the Strength of a Hindered.

“I’ll take a break when I pass out, and not a minute sooner Katsuyu. These people aren’t gonna heal themselves, cha!” the pink haired firecracker shouted at the slug, the man she was in the process of stitching up startling at her out-burst. The cloud ninja shrank back at the fierce gleam that shone in her eyes as her grip tightened around his shoulder painfully.

“Sumimasen deshita, Haruno-sama”

The man uttered out the formal apology to the speechless kunoichi without a second thought and little prompting. He’d heard the stories and rumors spreading around the battle about her and her old team, though he had not been near enough to witness their acts himself. People were saying the young woman and men had powers not of this world, that their strength rivaled that of their predecessors; the Legendary Sanin of the Hidden Leaf. He did not want to incite the young females wrath.

_Haruno.... sama?_ The strawberry blonde mulled over her comrades words as she finished stitching and dressing his wounds with a sudden gentleness. Her eyes watered as she took a step back to rinse her hands in a shallow dish of water and antiseptic herbs. Her shock over  what the cloud shinobi had said ended and in its place, she felt awe. Awe over the fact that people viewed her, Sasuke, and Naruto any differently then they had before. _Before this war, no one knew my name, no one knew who I was, they only knew me as Tsunade-sama’s apprentice... but now... I’ve finally caught up with them._

Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle nudge of her elbow. Turning, she came face to face with Shizune, the Godaime’s closest friend, advisor, and the niece of her beloved late Dan Kato. Shizune’s warm eyes bore into Sakura’s as the younger woman dried off her hands and placed them on her hips. With her hand fisted around a small cloth satchel, the older shinobi took one of Sakura’s hands from where it rested, and placed the bag into her palm.

“ Take this, Sakura-san. We need your skills, and if you won’t rest it’ll do us no good for you to collapse.” Shizune’s normally calm and soothing voice was all rough and hoarse from shouting in the harsh dusty air. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled at the younger woman. The pink haired girl shook the contents of the small purse into her left hand, a shiny brown ration pill rolling out. She let out a sigh and popped the pill into her mouth, bitting down once to crush the bitter capsule before hastily swallowing it down.

“ Thank you, Shizune-san.”  With a shiver, Sakura looked up, a small smile curving her lips up, and nodded a thanks to her other mentor as she felt her physical and spiritual energy levels rise.

“ No problem. Now, quickly, return to your duties. And **don’t** overdo it, okay?” Shizune’s stern chastisement held a tone of motherly affection to it, and once she got a quick nod from Sakura and made sure she did as instructed, the black haired kunoichi made her exit towards the opposite side of the camp.

 

The young woman turned back to her work station, eyes scanning the clusters of injured ninja littered between the tents. They looked so miserable and broken, yet each of them were laughing and smile with each other, those who were less seriously injured helping the medics tend to their less fortunate comrades, momentarily distracting them from their woes and sorrows. She was just about to call over her next patient when she felt a slight tug of something against her consciousness.

**_Sakura-san! Drop what you’re doing and get that squishy ass of yours over here!_ **

**_Ino-san..? What do you want? I can’t leave right now, there’s still dozens of people who need medical attention!_ **

**_It’s Neji-kun, he’s still breathing, Sakura._ **

The pile of sterile bandages she had been holding landed on the gravel bellow her feet with a soft ‘whump’, and Sakura stood there as still as a statue while staring at the bundle of thin linens. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears, and it was as if the chaos and shouting around her just... faded away.

**_He’s alive... Ino?_ **


	3. Chapter 3: Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is terrible, i'm sorry. i only had half of this chapter read by a Beta, and i wrote the other half while watching Cheese in the Trap.

****

Yamanaka Ino could scarcely believe that six fully grown people and a giant ass dog could manage to precariously balance themselves on top of a _very_ small plateau, yet, there they were. And if her hands weren’t otherwise occupied with trying to keep one of her friends alive, she would have straight-up knocked some of their heads together ages ago. She had a roaring migraine, and was getting impatient with Sakura. The other woman sure was taking her sweet-ass time rushing over here. Just as she was about to berate her friends and tell them to step the hell back before she snapped, a young man in green leotard drew everyone’s attention, including hers, away from the injured man in her lap.

“ Hey! Ino-san, I can see her! Our youthful tears have blessed her with mighty speed!” Lee shouted at the top of his lungs, though there was little need considering how closely squashed together they were. And sure enough, in the distance they could see a rapidly approaching cloud of dust crowned with pink hair. Ino sighed, muttering a quick blessing to the heavens as Akamaru let lose a soft yip in warning to the group, the ninja gathered around Neji oblivious to his stirrings.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke’s last thought before the darkness consumed him was ‘ _why does that idiot not think that I care?’_ Then, nothing. Its not that he lost consciousness, no, it was more as if he had lost consciousness of his own being. His ribs were burning, he knew he should be concerned that he couldn’t feel his left arm any more as well as the warm sticky substance leaking down his side, and he felt like his body was disintegrating into the wind; a cool blanket of calm blackness wrapping itself around him. The pounding in his heart grew way to intense a level and he let go.

 

* * *

 

 

There was a collective sigh of relief from the gathered ninja on the rock as Neji slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the late afternoon light blinding him. He tried to slowly sit up before three pairs of hands shoved him roughly back down, Tenten, Ino, and sakura shooting him three identical glares. He gasped out as pain radiated through his chest and abdomen and Sakura placed one of Katsuyu’s fragments on his torso, the soothing blue chakra being emitted from the slug princess easing the sting of his wounds.  

“If you move again, I’ll make you regret the fact that you’re still alive. Sakura-san exhausted herself to reconstruct your vital systems. You need to lay still while your body heal more.” Ino’s warning came out as a low growl, her eyes promising bloody murder should he try to go against her. The long haired brunet gave a slow nod, his body to sore and tired to even respond to his brain. Clearing his throat, Neji relaxed back onto someone’s knees and turned to see a pair of brown eyes staring down at him.

“How are you feeling, Neji-kun?” Tenten reached down to brush some stray strands of hair from the younger man’s forehead, frowning when he drew back as if she’d burnt him on instinct.

“Don’t touch my face, Tenten, you know-“ his voice tapered off as he realized that when her fingers brushed his skin, there was no pain, and his bandage was gone.

“You’re curse-mark is gone Neji-niisan, when you died... well it disappeared...” Hinata moved closer to her cousin, kneeling down to his left and clasping one of his hand tightly in her own. The white eyed heiress blinked back tears of relief at seeing her cousin alive and, for the most part, well once again.

“What do you mean... it’s gone? It can’t be gone, if it’s gone, then I can’t use my byakugan!” the long haired brunet began to panic as he struggled to sit up once again, damning the four women who attempted to keep him in place and ignoring the shooting pain traveling up his back as Katsuyu was dislodged from her resting place atop him, a faint squeak of protest coming from the slug as she tumbled off.           “It can’t be gone, Hinata, what colour are my eyes?”  He turned, wild-eyed to his cousin, daring her to tell him what he already knew was the truth. The younger Hyuga avoided his piercing gaze, lowering her head and letting her hair fall to cover her torn expression.

“Neji-kun... they’re gray. Like, steel grey... I’m sorry.” Neji felt fingers run through his hair soothingly, and his whipped his head around towards Tenten, about to snap at her that he didn’t need her pity before he stopped himself and huffed out a strained sigh.

“it’s okay, I guess I should just be thankful that I’m not still dead... even though it’d probably be better that way.” He slowly lowered his aching body back down into the older kunoichi’s lap, startling when he was yanked back up into a bone crushing hug, in the most literal sense possible. Green filled his vision as his other teammate proceeded to sob into his shoulder, and he groaned mentally.

“Lee, let him go before you break him. He’s fine, he’s breathing, he’s awake, and he’s still injured.” Ino’s voice oozed with sarcasm as she attempted to pry the overly exuberant ninja from the poor Hyuga man. Rock Lee refused to budge though, wrapping his body around the older ninja as he sobbed nonsense about youth and fires and passionate flames of friendship.

“Lee, stop it, how do you still have this much energy after the battle? So troublesome...” Nara Shikamaru, who had been silently sitting on the edge of the rocky ledge the whole time, turned to the seven members of the rookie nine who were gathered with a lazy smirk on his face and ran his fingers through his bushy ponytail. Kiba patted Lee on the shoulder roughly, effectively dislodging the emotional green spandex clad youth from the dog pile that had formed with his squad-mates.

“Will all of you just _shut up already_. I need to get back to the medical pavilion, Neji, don’t move to much or your wounds won’t heal properly. Lee, get off him, you’re only getting in the way of his healing. Ino, you know what to do if his condition changes. I’m out.” Sakura thought it best if she made her escape quickly and with authority, hoping that they would listen to her instructions. The group let out various shouts of protest, when there was a resounding boom and flash of brilliant light that enveloped the eastern edge of the battle field.

“What the hell was that?” Kiba turned towards the blast as Akamaru let out a rumbling growl. Silence had fallen over the entire battle field, and Sakura paused with everyone else. The rookie seven turned to each other with concerned expressions.

_I have a terrible feeling about this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will hopefully be up by Monday, probably more likely Tuesday.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what i'm doing.  
> I hope this caught your attention, dear reader, and if so i also hope you have some constructive criticism and any input would be very much appreciated. This is the first part of, hopefully, many more to come. i'll try updating at least 2-4 times a week, so keep checking to see if there's new work posted!!
> 
> There will of course be some instances of OOC-ness, cause lets be honest, i'm not going to follow cannon with some of the events that transpired in the manga and anime, but i'll try to keep the children/adults of Konoha as close to their character/personality as possible. I hope you enjoyed chapter 1, and that you come back for more~
> 
> read responsibly, my lovelies,
> 
> Sammich.


End file.
